Creating Tableau Server Log Files

Creating logs in Tableau Server can be useful to assist Tableau in determining the causes of issues you experience. For most scenarios, you will not need to stop the Tableau Server to generate log files. Tableau Support will notify you if the Server must be stopped before running the log files. Use the directions below to generate and send log files to Tableau Support. If you are running a distributed environment installation of Tableau Server, perform this task from the primary machine. Any worker machine logs will be included in the log files.

Note: If you use an automated cleanup process, as described in the Server Backup and Maintenance article, the clean up command will remove all of your log files. To ensure that you have the ability to create log files, consider including your log files in your automated cleanup process. This will save your log files in case you need them. 

Step 1

Click the Start button, and then select  All Programs > Accessories. Right-click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.

Step 2

• On a 32-bit machine: cd C:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau Server\[version]\bin
• On a 64-bit machine: cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Tableau\Tableau Server\[version]\bin

Step 3

Create the log file by typing the following command: tabadmin ziplogs -l -n -d mm/dd/yyyy

Note: The -l is lower case L. Also, replace mm/dd/yyyy with an actual date that is two days prior to the day you experienced the issue.

This creates a file named logs.zip in the Tableau Server "bin" folder that was created during installation.

Step 4

Send Tableau this logs.zip file as an attachment when you report your issue.

Options for creating log files

There are additional options when using the tabadmin ziplogs command. You can run the command with -h to see the full list of options.

Below are some commonly used options.

• -l, --with-latest-dump
  Includes latest Vizql dump files.
• -f, --force
  Force overwrite of existing file.
• -n, --with-netstat-info
  Includes information about which ports are in use and additional Netstat information.
• -d, --minimumdate mm/dd/yyyy
  Includes files created on or after date. Default is 7 days prior to current date.
• -a, --all
  Includes all files (ignore -d switch).
• -p
  Includes PostgreSQL data folder ('psql/data'). A useful option when working with Tableau Support to diagnose issues.

Follow the directions for sending large files in the article Sending Large Files. When attaching the file, be sure to browse to the logs.zip file in the "bin" folder of the Tableau Server directory.

If the file times out or otherwise fails to send, please contact Tableau Support for additional assistance.